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October 7, 2008 1:26:31 PM CDT

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Robert Vesco, Rogue Financier, Dies in Cuba

Posted May 6, 08 6:47 AM CDT in Crime & Courts,  Business 

(Newser) – Robert Vesco, the American financier who fled the country amid accusations that he had swindled $200 million from unsuspecting investors, died in Havana last November, according to a relative. Vesco, who died at 71, had lived in Cuba since the 1980s and had served time in jail there for defrauding a member of Fidel Castro's family. How much money he left behind and where it is remains unknown, Reuters reports.

Vesco was born in Detroit and became a millionaire by age 30. He spent decades on the run from US authorities not only for fraud, but for drug trafficking, bribing American officials, and illegal contributions to Richard Nixon. The relative, who is living anonymously in a rundown Havana apartment, said that Vesco had a small funeral in Havana and is buried in a tomb that does not bear his name.

Source Reuters

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In this Aug. 2, 1996 file photo file photo, American fugitive Robert Lee Vesco, center, leaves a Cuban court. Vesco died on Nov. 23, 2007 in Cuba, according to a burial record at Colon Cemetery.   (AP Photo/Canadian Press, Jose Goitia)
This Feb. 26, 1973 file photo shows financier Robert L. Vesco at an unknown location. Vesco, the American fugitive who cooked up moneymaking schemes that allegedly involved everyone from Colombian drug...   (AP Photo)
In this Aug. 2, 1996 file photo file photo, American fugitive Robert Lee Vesco, center, leaves a Cuban court in Havana, Cuba. Vesco, the American fugitive who cooked up moneymaking schemes that allegedly...   (AP Photo/Canadian Press, Jose Goitia)
In this May 25, 1973 file photo, fugitive financier Robert Vesco in shown in a jet in San Jose, Costa Rica. Vesco died on Nov. 23, 2007 in Cuba, according to a burial record at Colon Cemetery.   (AP Photo)
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